Pages

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Short Story Club: "Orientation" by Daniel Orozco

Welcome
to Short Story Club, thanks so much for
coming. Let’s see, I think you know just about everybody - Oh, here, Tucker
will take your coat. Go ahead and have a seat, and whatever you do, don’t leave
without trying one of Orlando’s peanut-butter squares. They’re to die for.

So
what did everybody think about “Orientation?” Tucker jumped the gun a little
bit when I first posted the story, so I’ll kick things off with his reaction:

“OK, I didn't like it.“Let me be more specific: I liked the
"idea" but I didn't like the "execution." Once I read the
first page, I realized that the story was essentially THAT (except for a little
blurb about a serial killer).“In short, to me, the story has nothing that
makes it interesting. In fact, it's terribly uninteresting.“I didn't like it.”

I
can kind of see where he’s coming from- the story’s definitely not a thrill
ride- but I think that’s precisely the point. “Terribly uninteresting” sounds
like a pretty apt description of the cubicle life Orozco’s trying to convey. If
you mean, Tucker, that the story gets repetitive, then fine. I’ll agree with
you. I think that’s the intent. You get a taste in four pages of the
career-length hell that awaits the speechless protagonist. Most of us don’t have to work
at “Initech” to relate to that in some way. John Williams had this to say about
Orozco’s collection in the NY Times Sunday Book Review:

The stories in Daniel Orozco’s debut collection
convey a sense of workplace alienation that would make Karl Marx cringe. The opening
lines of “Orientation,” the first story, place us squarely under the
fluorescent lights of comically absurd employment: “Those are the offices and
these are the cubicles. That’s my cubicle there, and this is your cubicle. This
is your phone. Never answer your phone. Let the Voicemail System answer it.
This is your Voicemail System Manual.”

Workplace alienation. Comically absurd
employment. If that’s what Orozco was going for. I think he nailed it. What did
you think? Sound off in the comments.